[quote=sdrealtor]The reason everyone else is more cost effective is that in the US we spend alot of money on grim cases where as others say hasta your goose is probably cooked so why even try.
BTW, I said my friend lives in Thailand but he travels all around the world. He has worked in over 40 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Carribean and Eastern Europe. He’s one of the foremost experts on HIV/AIDS in the world.[/quote]
Our care is more expensive because it’s driven by *profit.* Patients are told to take medicine which really doesn’t help them much (might do more harm), and are told to have procedures which they don’t even need (like Brian’s examples of “upselling” — I’ve seen it plenty of times, myself).
I’m all for doing what is necessary to keep people healthy and happy, and believe in good screening programs, etc., but there is a LOT of waste in our healthcare system because of our tendency to “upsell,” and keep patients coming back for more treatments and procedures.
With “socialist” healthcare systems, the goal is health; in a “capitalist” system, the goal is higher profits — even if those profits come at the expense of people’s health.
